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Wedgehog
Not to be confused with Kronic the Wedgehog Wedgehog was a lightweight robot that singularly participated in the first series of Robot Wars. At the time, it was actually a Middleweight. Although Wedgehog was substantially lighter than the rest of the robots in its heat, it defeated Dreadnaut in the Arena, which was 64kg the heavier, to reach the Heat Final. However, it lost there to Robot the Bruce. Design It was a black aluminium wedge, with a pickaxe as its weapon. However, this weapon was not very powerful and was referred to as a "toothpick" by both Jeremy Clarkson and Jonathan Pearce. Also the robot travelled at 4 mph and ran off two 9.6V domestic electric drills. Etymology The name Wedgehog, like Kronic the Wedgehog's and Edge Hog's, is a pun on hedgehog, referring to the robots wedge shape. The Team Wedgehog's team (sometimes referred to by Robot Wars competitor websites as The Shadow Project) consisted of three students. Team captain Chris Glaister was the lead designer of Wedgehog, and builder of the weapon system, also being responsible for sourcing two £200 Bosch motors for free as part of a sponsorship. Teammate Joe Wentworth constructed Wedgehog's shell and wheel mounts, while Hugo Elis assisted with construction and designed the shape of Wedgehog's shell. Robot History Series 1 Wedgehog fought in Heat C of the First Wars. In the Gauntlet, Wedgehog broke down a metre from the end of the Gauntlet after taking the maze and becoming impaled on a spike, however this was still more than enough to make it through to the next stage, placing third of six on the leaderboard. In the Football Trial, Wedgehog had attached panels to its front wedge to help control the ball. It was awarded the second goal because it had touched the ball last of the remaining competitors before goalkeeper Dead Metal inadvertently pushed it in. Wedgehog went through to Heat Semi-Final, here, it fought Dreadnaut, who'd suffered from reliability problems twice before this stage. Dreadnaut definitely had the weight advantage, but just a few bumps and bashes from Wedgehog, and Dreadnaut's engine burned out, it was declared immobile and Wedgehog was put through. Finally, it met Robot the Bruce in the Heat Final, the first product to come out of Team Chaos. After putting up some resistance, the heavier and more powerful Robot the Bruce eventually caught it from the side and bulldozed Wedgehog onto the grill, ending its challenge as it was unable to get away. A short time later, after it had been declared immobilised, Wedgehog suffered fierce attacks from the incoming house robots Sergeant Bash and Matilda, taking damage from their cutting weaponry. Results |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 1 *Losses: 1 NOTE: Wedgehog's successful Gauntlet and Trial runs are not included Series Record Wedgehogbeforpaint.jpg|Wedgehog before being painted WHrejecteddesign.jpg|A rejected design, sketched by Hugo Elias WHrejecteddesign2.jpg|Another rejected design from Hugo Elias Outside Robot Wars Wedgehog is no longer active as a competitor, but it is shown at Robots Live events. However, only its shell is displayed, without the internals. As of 2018, it is currently in the possession of Team MAD, and has been owned by the team for several years. Team MAD displayed the shell of Wedgehog at Robonerd 2019 alongside their active heavyweight machines. Trivia *Robot Wars: The Ultimate Guide mistakenly states that Wedgehog's team succeeded it with Kronic 2, which actually came from a completely unrelated team. **However, now, both robots are owned by the same team. References External Links *The archived Wedgehog website Category:UK Series competitors Category:Lightweights Category:Robots from Greater London Category:Robots with puns for names Category:Robots with Spiked Axes/Picks Category:UK Heat Finalists Category:Robots with an equal amount of Wins and Losses Category:Robots which debuted in Series 1 Category:Robots which only fought in Series 1